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Freedom House: A Review of Censorship Circumvention Tools in Iran

Censorship-Circumvention-Tools-in-Iran-filter-software-iThis report is intended for internet users from Iran. In Iran, access to websites and services may be blocked and monitored by the Iranian government. This report summarizes the characteristics of a number of tools you can easily use to circumvent the blocking and monitoring system in Iran, and will help you to choose the right tool for your situation.

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Photos: Protests in Egypt

Protests-Egypt-2011-iOn 25 January 2011 extensive civil unrest and rioting began in Egypt. Despite violence, the situation seemed more controlled chiefly through the moderating effects of the army’s presence on the street.

The protesters appeared to have a clear objective — the removal of Mubarak’s regime.

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Theater - The Persian Quarter by Salt Lake Acting Company

Kathleen-Cahill-play-THE-PERSIAN-QUARTER-iFeb. 2 – Feb. 27, 2011

SLAC proudly presents the World Premiere of The Persian Quarter by Kathleen Cahill.

A diplomatic crisis and a chance encounter trigger revelations of a shared past. The play unfolds on the final day of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980 Tehran with Anne, an American hostage and Shirin, an Iranian revolutionary student who is one of her captors.

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SF Common Wealth Club Event: The Shah, the Ayatollah and Iran's nuclear program, Double-talk or Double-standards?

Abbas MilaniJanuary 19 2011

The Commonwealth Club will be hosting Abbas Milani in San Francisco.

Abbas Milani, Co-Director of the Iran Democracy Project and author of The Shah, will reveal the complex and sweeping road that has brought the U.S. and Iran to where they are today.

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Photos: The Play Hedda Gabler in Tehran’s City Hall Theatre – stopped for moral review

Hedda-Gabler-play -Tehran-031-iHedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama.

Hedda Gabler was translated to Persian and directed by Vahid Rahbani.

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Video: Interview with Faezeh Rafsanjani

Faezeh-Hashemi-RafsanjaniAlAan TV Exclusive

AlAan TV exclusively interviewed Faezeh Hashemi who said that the Iranian authorities fabricated lies against her brother Mehdi and pressured prisoners to confess against him.

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Posters: Iranian graphic designer awarded at Mexican biennial

Mohammad-Jamshidi-Iran-Fear-and-mental-damage-i

Iranian graphic designer Mohammad Jamshidi took third place at the International Poster Biennial of Mexico.

He was selected for the third place for his poster “Fear and Mental Anguish” in Category A of the biennial which is dedicated to cultural posters.

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Dar be Dar - How freedom became a fashion statement

Dar-be-Dar-DBD078_Black_large-iTala Raassi spent most of her childhood under Islamic rule where the lives of women are severely limited. Fashion captured the young Raassi’s true imagination and it wasn’t long before she began choosing fashion books over school books

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The Green Team: Iranian Opposition's Heavy Hitters

broken-green-heart-iGraphics and text by Kristin Deasy RFE/RL

An RFE/RL primer, in the form of mock trading cards, on some key figures within the Green Movement that emerged after Iran’s disputed 2009 election.

Mir-Hossein-Musavi, Bahareh Hedayat, Mehdi-Saharkhiz, Mohammad Shajarian, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Neda Agha-Soltan, Mohammad-Nourizad, Mourning-Mothers, Zahrah Rahnavard, Majid Tavakoli, Mehdi-Karrub

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Amsterdam - Cycle For Free Iran, June 12 2010

Cycle-For-Free-IranNetherlands is the land of cyclists, so join us and invite others to join!

Following the electoral coup d’état and fraudulent results of the Presidential Elections, thousands of Iranians have been subject to state-sponsored violence, torture, rape and execution last year.

12 June Event Finder

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HBO Documentaries: For Neda

Neda-hbo-iFor Neda tells the personal story of Neda Agha-Soltan who became the iconic symbol of Iran’s 2009 post-election protests and struggle.

Written, directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Antony Thomas, For Neda is the story of Neda Agha-Soltan whose tragic death on June 20, 2009 came to symbolize for many the struggle in Iran.

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Amnesty International report 2010 on Iran

Amnesty-Internationa-1l-iNo one should be above the law. But all too often, those who commit the worst kinds of human rights abuses are not brought to justice.

Iran’s government continued to clamp down on all forms of dissent in the wake of the mass demonstrations following the disputed June 2009 presidential elections. The authorities deployed  the paramilitary Basij and other security forces to prevent protestors gathering, arrested hundreds more political activists, journalists, students and women’s and human rights defenders, and continued to mount grossly unfair “show trials” resulting in long prison terms and, in a few cases, death sentences.

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Michelle Montezeri's Freedom For Iran Original Song - Change

16 year old Michelle Montezeri dedicates her original song Change to the Iranian Green Movement.

YouTube Preview Image

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Iran Regime Change Survey

Iran-Regime-Change-SurveyAccording to the Persian language site sazegara.net, the following 5-question survey was conducted in secret in Iran, and about 350 Iranians from Tehran and 3 other unnamed provinces took the survey on Jan. 17th 2010.

Here is your chance to take the same survey but in English. You ‘ll see the result for both surveys.

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Human Rights World Report 2010: Iran Targets Human Rights Messengers

World-Report-2010-iThe 612-page report, HRW’s 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations.

Human Rights Watch cited Sudan and China as countries that routinely shut down human rights groups and Iran and Uzbekistan as countries that openly harass and arbitrarily detain human rights workers and other critics.

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Global Erosion of Freedom and Iran's negative trend

freedomhouse-2010-iIn a year marked by intensified repression against human rights defenders and civic activists, declines for freedom were registered in 40 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union, representing 20 percent of the world’s total polities.

Authoritarian states including Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and Vietnam became more repressive. Declines in freedom also occurred in countries that had registered positive trends in previous years, including Bahrain, Jordan, Kenya, and Kyrgyzstan.

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